musings of extofer

Great Scott!! Don’t use Visual Basic – Meme Monday May 2012

If I could go back in time and meet myself on Day one of my IT career, I would advise myself not to use VB 5.0.

I can almost say I was an accidental developer – let me explain. I had a degree in Mass Communications and found myself interested in computers enough to land a job as a Layout Designer for a local newspaper. I began to dabble in HTML soon after as I was able to afford my first Packard Bell P1. When I left the world of Newspaper and Media, I took a job as a computer operator in the automotive industry and learned to use a product management application on MS Access. There were inconsistencies in the engineering department I worked in with our, *cough, cough* database and the data coming to us from an AS400 application networked from Detroit and Japan. So my curiosity took me to explore options and I discovered I could use VBA within Access, or Excel mind you, and create an ODBC connection to a datasource. All this was mind boggling and I resulted to learn programming and create our own application to connect to the Access data as well as the AS400 data. My first question was, “Where do I begin?” Seeing that I worked in the engineering department, I pursued advice from the engineers as they recommended C or Java (cerca 1997, 1.1 or 1.2). It was Visual Basic that caught my attention.

STOP!!

I wish I could have done that. It was pretty, it was easy, it was just the thing a newbie could have done. From that moment, I became a Visual Basic developer; luckily, there was .Net in the next three years. The problem was, old habits die hard. VB is not an OO language; it’s procedural and event driven. I spent most of my development going back to VB.Net during its inception or used C# as I did VB – event driven. Object oriented design and development was beyond foreign to me.

Programming languages don’t make the programmer, but learning the right language where other major languages are derived from and are the foundation to pattern design, would be a good start. I develop in C# now, and have dabbled in PHP as well as Java. But learning Object orientation design and development took a reboot in my career. I am happy where I am now, but it could have been a shorter trip given the opportunity to go back in time and meet myself on Day One of my IT career.

May 7, 2012 1

Colorado GiveCamp, Spring 2012

There are those that do, and those that don’t. Seldom do you get an opportunity to help those in need, now is your chance. For the third time in my life, I’m part of a GiveCamp, a weekend long event where Developers, DBA and other technologist gather to work for charities. Now is the time show where you fit, Walk the Walk, or Talk the Talk.

That intro might have been harsh, nonetheless when you have Colorado charities, asking for help because they don’t have the infrastructure, the funding or the personnel, I’m lost for words. In the past, we have given food banks a facelift online, we have introduced an original application in efforts to assist combating human trafficking, we have written applications for non-profit organizations for blind children, youth mentoring and service programs for boys and girls.

The next iteration of GiveCamp in Colorado will be held in Greeley Colorado, May 4^th – 6^th, 2012. We have received several requests from area charities, requesting for assistance. We can’t help them all – unless we have the skill set from volunteers. We are looking for an array of talents. Obviously, we can use developers, developers from all walks of life, C#, PHP, Ruby. If you have experience with Content Management Systems, have some knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flash or Silverlight. We can work with various databases, platforms and frameworks. However, it doesn’t have to stop there. If you are more involved in everyday business, we also need Project Managers, Technical Writers and Software Testers. You don’t have to be technical to volunteer; you can imagine the three day event can require lots of hands. You can register now, and volunteer for GiveCamp.

You can get all the details of Colorado GiveCamp on our site or you can register directly on our event page. Consider it, but don’t think about it too long, Colorado charities need our help

April 23, 2012 0

SSWUG Expo: Understanding Database Security Threats and Countermeasures

SQL Server Security and Intrusion Prevention

Today was my first experience being part of a Virtual Conference. I will definitely admit, it was an interesting experience. I’d like to thank those that watched the sessions and here some details for that talk.
Below you’ll find the Slide deck and the link to the scripts used

Scripts

l33t Password Generator
You can download the source code project and even contribute to the project by checking out the shource code from my GitHub.
https://github.com/extofer/l33tPassGen

Slide Deck

SQL Server Security and Intrusion Prevention

View more PowerPoint from Gabriel Villa

Speaker Rate
I haven’t done many presentation, but I’d like to here how I’m doing. Please take a moment to rate my talk and I appreciate constructive criticism.

February 17, 2012 0

Extofer Bits – Episode 00110001

I wanted to try something new when it comes to posting, so I created a screencast, and decided I will do more of these, “quick tip” posts. Today, I shared a site I use regularly, most importantly, it’s a must visit site for new installs. I recently re-installed Windows 7 on my machine and I visited Ninite to install my everyday software.

UPDATE: 03/09/2012
Ninite is now also available for linux at http://ninite.com/linux/

February 8, 2012 0

Thank you SQL Family

Meet Andrew, Troy and Gary

In 2011 there’s been a lot of noise regarding the SQL Family, and a lot of it has to do with friends and a shared passion – with SQL Server.

For eleven months out of this past year, fellow professionals – now friends – gathered every third Wednesday of the month to share that passion and discuss and learn about SQL Server technologies. When I moved to Colorado Springs in 2010, I attended their last meeting that was held in a public library. The following January, 2011 we had our first meeting at Mr. Biggs Family Fun Center, a smart move – it has become our safe haven for SQL Saturdays and two Christmas Parties. So this year, we have had a great line up of speakers and presentations since then, including:

Tim Mitchell
Kevin Cox
Tom Norman
Mike Fal
Paul Nielsen
Chris Shaw
Troy Ketsdever
Doug Lane
Mark Halstead

Upcoming SQL Events

Ski Attire

As the year winds down, we sincerely thank our SQL Family for coming to the meetings, for sharing and participating, and for growing our SQL community. Our membership has grown and so has the attendance.

The Springs SQL Server User Group has a great following and is looking bright for the future. If you haven’t heard already, we have a great event coming up in the beginning of 2012. We are kicking off the SQL Year with SQL Saturday #104, again including some awesome events:

Women in Technology with Karen Lopez ( b | t ), Meredith Ryan-Smith ( b | t ) and Thomas LaRock ( b | t ).
And Pre-Cons:

1. “Scaling SQL Server” (Glenn Berry)
2. “Data Warehouse Dimensional Design and Architecture Planning” (Erik Veerman)
3. “What’s In Your Utility Belt?” (Chris Shaw and TJay Belt)

To top it off, we will have a Ski Trip to Monarch the day after the conference.
Why do I mention all of this? It would not be possible without the hard work of SQL community members who are making this happen, FOR the people and BY the people. That is why we commemorate our Colorado Springs SQL Family with an Annual Christmas Party.

Christmas Party 2011

Red Gate SQL Christmas Party

Our very own Rebecca Mitchell, you all can refer her as her royal highness SQLPrincess, was contacted about an opportunity for our user group Holiday party to be sponsored by Red Gate.

We would like to extend a special thanks to Red Gate for awarding us funds to have an awesome party, Colorado Springs Style. Last night at Mr. Biggs Family Fun Center we had a blast with our members. We didn’t just have appetizers and drinks – Nay Nay No No! We had BBQ ribs and all the fixin’s. We had reserved the VIP bowling alley, as members and their guests enjoyed unlimited bowling on half a dozen lanes. Then we had a great time playing Laser Tag. Why laser tag? our fearless Princess explained to Red Gate, “There’s nothing quite like taunting, err.. chasing after fellow database professionals in a round of Laser Tag.”

SQL Blue Team

We’ll call them “Red Gate” Team

For two rounds the Blue Team dominated, finding the Red Team’s fort and annihilating it. I was able to take a few good shots at some Blue Team soldiers but we were still defeated – All in Good Fun! I hope our members enjoyed their time playing Laser Tag and eating great food.
We anticipate another banner year in 2012.

Christmas Party Pictures

SpringsSQLParty

I leave you with this, Happy Holidays and thanks again to our wonderful sponsor, Red Gate and our Colorado Springs SQL Family. Enjoy the shared photos as well, taken by Troy, Rebecca and myself.

Call to Action: SecureKidsWeb

In recent news in the city I live in, a 12 and a half year old boy was severely injured at home. After a five day battle, the young man was taken off life support. This really hit home for us when we first heard of the news because it was my son’s first day of school and the young man went to the same school. The parents kept the accident private, but encourage these words:

“Please take good care of all your children and loved ones.
Watch closely what they look at on the Internet and things they talk about with friends. We feel we did not know enough and this lack of knowledge made us pay a high price !!”

It’s a shame when families don’t know enough about parental control. It is a vary sad thing to think this could of been prevented with simple, free Internet security tools or sites. I been using OpenDNS since my young ones were freely able to surf the web on their own computers. Not to mention, I was able to block out unwanted information from their Wii game console as well.

I want to share my quick lesson to anyone listening, and I encourage friends and families with children to do the same right now. I would also challenge and ask all my acquainted IT professionals that I know, personally or via Social Network, that we come forth and help. Please take a minute and share your Internet Parental Control knowledge and post and tag it #SecureKidsWeb

Create a free Opendns account at http://www.opendns.com/.

Go to the Set up page and follow the instructions to set up your home router: https://store.opendns.com/setup/

When set up, go to your OpenDNS Dashboard. You should be able to see a network address in the form of ###.###.###.####. That is called an IP address. Click the “Add Network” button and name your network.

Once you have added the Network, click on the Settings tab, and you will find the Web Content Filtering section. At this point, you can choose your filtering level, or customize your setting. By doing so, you can block content by category, i.e. Adult content, Sexuality, Drugs, Hate/Discrimination.

Once you have set up your OpenDNS, you may manage to see reports of site visited and judge for yourself whether you want to block addition site by name in the same manner by going to the Manage individual domains section.

Now you can have the ease to monitor and manage Web Traffic and content.

August 22, 2011 0

musings of extofer

and his secret identity, Gabriel Villa